1. Technological Field
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information processing program. Embodiments of the present invention are suitably applied to an information processing apparatus that executes processing in response to an operation input made on a touch screen, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, an information processing apparatus including a touch screen has been used widely. In that type of information processing apparatus, more intuitive input operations are realized by making inputs on the touch screen with operations such as tapping, dragging, and flicking. The term “dragging” implies an operation of moving, e.g., a finger while the finger is kept touched on the touch screen, and the term “flicking” implies an operation of flicking, e.g., a finger on the surface of the touch screen.
As one example, an information processing apparatus is proposed in which an image is scrolled when the dragging is performed on the touch screen.
As another example, an information processing apparatus is proposed in which an image is scaled up and down respectively when pinching-out and pinching-in are performed on the touch screen (see, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-299474 (pages 24, 25 and 34)). The term “pinching-out” implies an operation of touching two fingers onto the touch panel and widening a space between the two fingers, and the term “pinching-in” implies an operation of touching two fingers onto the touch panel and narrowing a space between the two fingers.
Thus, in those proposed information processing apparatuses, when a gesture operation corresponding to a predetermined type of processing (e.g., scrolling of an image) is recognized from an operation input made on the touch screen, the predetermined type of processing is executed.
In the information processing apparatuses described above, however, only one type of processing is executed with one operation input because the operation input and the gesture operation are correlated in one-to-one relation, for example, such that the dragging is recognized as the gesture operation corresponding to the scrolling. The expression “one operation input” used herein represents an input provided by operating gestures of touching the finger onto the touch screen and then releasing the finger from the touch screen.
In view of the above-identified problems, it is desirable to propose an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information processing program, which can realize a more versatile operating system.